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373. A Historical Sketch of Madison Square. Illust 

12mo, paper, pp. 47. (Auto, presentation copy from the 
author, Morris Benjamin.) N. Y. 1894 






MERIDEN MONOGRAPHS, No. i 



'^y^'^rt^C't^ / t^2ty.^«^^>^<** 



H Ibistorical Sketch of 
^abison Square 




NEW YORK 
1894 






This little hook^ the result of many months of 
careful research^ is offered to the patrons of the 
Meriden Britannia Gom])anij^ in commemoration of 
its removal fro7n Unio7i to Madison Square. It is 
hoped that they ivillfind the information as inter- 
esting as it has been to the publishers of this His- 
torical Sketch of Madison Square. 



'W 






09 



No 




MADISON SQUARE. 




|N the very heart of the metropolis of the 
New World is Madison Square ; and in 
all New York there is no other one 
place so completely identified with the 
growth of the city as this beautiful pleasance. Even 
more than this may be said, for it is doubtful if there 
is any place in the world where the^;^ de Steele civili- 
zation in its fullest development can be seen to 
greater advantage than in this very ]\ladison Square. 
It has all the gayety and brightness of the famous 
Place de la Concorde in Paris, without its sad remin- 
iscences. Like Trafalgar Square in London, it has 
a memorial to a nation's greatest naval hero ; like- 
wise it does honor to a brave soldier, and even states- 
men have not been forgotten. Its history is like 
that of Lafayette Square, in Washington city, of 
^vhich it has been well said to have " undeniably the 
most interesting history of any locality in the United 
States." The history of Madison Square is indeed 
the history of New York city itself. 

Originally it was conspicuous as a military post, 
serving as such during the war of 1812 ; then it 
became the site of the House of Refuge, and finally 

(5) 



6 



MADISON SQUARE. 



it was beautified and made into a park. These 
various elements of its history we shall consider in 
their chronological order. 

As early as 1806 a magazine or arsenal was erected 
by the United States at the junction of the Eastern 
Post Road, as the highway to Boston was then called, 

and the Middle 
Road, better known 
in these days as 
Broadway. The 

exact site of this 
building was about 
where the Worth 
Monument now 
stands. It formed 
one of the series of 
defenses which in- 
cluded two other 
arsenals in the low- 
er part of the city, 
and two forts — one 
off the Battery, 
called Southwest 
Battery, and the 
other in Hudson 
River, off Hubert 
Street, called North 
Battery. 

These arsenals 
were buildings two 
or three stories 




MADISON SQUARE. 7 

high, of stone and brick, well constructed, and in- 
closed by high walls. All that is martial has long 
since disappeared from this point. Worth's Monu- 
ment alone preserves to memory the spot that once 
served to protect the city from an attack from the 
north. Thus almost a century ago what has since 
become Madison Square was an important locality 
in the history of New York. 

In 1807 an act was passed by the State Legis- 
lature authorizing the appointment of commission- 
ers to regulate and open the streets. De Witt Clin- 
ton, who resigned from the United States Senate in 
1802 to accept the office of mayor of the city, was 
then tilling that place for a second time. 

He named as commissioners Goiiverneur Morris, 
Simeon De Witt, and John Rutherfurd. To this 
board New York owes its rectangular system of 
streets and avenues. They adopted the method of 
parallel streets across the island, numbering toward 
the north from Houston Street, where their special 
labors began. The streets were intersected by ave- 
nues one hundred feet wide, extending to the extreme 
northern limit of the island, twelve of which num- 
bered eastward from First Avenue, which passed 
" from the west of Bellevue Hospital to the east of 
Harlem Church." East of First Avenue were four 
short avenues, designated A, B, C, and D respectively. 

The adjustment of Broadway with the Bloom- 
ingdale Road seems to have caused them some trou- 
ble, and in a letter written by John Randel, Jr., city 
surveyor, to the commissioners, we find mention of 



8 MADISON SQUARE. 

that fact. He says : " Between Sailor's Snug Har- 
bor [now Tenth Street] and Love Lane [now Twen- 
ty-first Street] were a narrow causeway and perhaps 
from six to eight frame dwelling houses." By the 
commissioners' plan " Broadway was to have been 
straightened at this place by continuing it from 
the bend at the present Tenth Street northward 
between Third and Fourth Avenues to Twenty- 
third Street, where it was lost in ' The Parade.' " 

This Parade, according to the same writer, was 
laid out by the commissioners for military purposes, 
and contained 238'7 acres, extending from Twenty- 
third to Thirty-fourth Streets and from Third to 
Seventh Avenues. Their report was dated March 
32, 1811. By a statute of April 15, 1814, this tract 
was reduced to 89-1 acres, and about this time 
it received the name of Madison Square, in honor 
of James Madison, the President of the United 
States. Finally it was again reduced and given the 
present size. In its inception we have the germ 
which later gave rise to Central Park. 

Having thus traced part of its early history, we 
now pass to another phase of its development. It 
is a curious fact that many of the public squares of 
New York were originally used as burial places for the 
unknown dead. The upper part of City Hall Park, 
where the Court House now stands, was once used 
for that purpose. A writer on old New York says : 

" And the robin, who is no respecter of persons, 
chirps as joyously upon the sod that hides the quiet 
dust of the repentant and forgotten felon as on the 




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10 MADISON SQUARE. 

carefully tended grave of the nabob who left his 
gold behind him when he lay down to rest beneath 
the aristocratic elms of old St. Paul's." 

As the city pushed northward the Potter's Field 
was removed to Washington Square, and as early as 
1810 a part of the Parade Ground, especially that to 
the east of the arsenal, was used by the city authori- 
ties as the last resting place for its castaway dead. 
Later the block between Forty-ninth and Fiftieth 
Streets and Lexington and Fourth Avenues was 
used as a public cemetery until about 1857, when 
the present location on Ward's Island was selected. 
Felix Old boy, in his charming Tour around New 
York, says of Madison Square : 

" Fashion enjoys the lovely little park, but little 
recks that it owes its pleasant shade to the tramps 
and the criminals whose bones lie moldering beneath 
the grass and flowers." 

Meanwhile the Parade Ground remained a broad 
area of waste land. Subsequent to the War of 1812 
all fear of foreign invasion seems to have passed away, 
and finally, in 1823, the arsenal or barracks, as it was 
then called, was abandoned. The land became the 
property of the city, and in 1825 the first House of 
Refuge was founded in the old building. It began 
with six boys and three girls. Fire destroyed the 
building in 1839, and the House of Refuge was re- 
moved, in October of that year, to the foot of Fast 
Twenty-third Street, where it remained until 1854, 
when it was again removed to its present site on 
Randall's Island. 



MADISON SQUARE. H 

Of this institution a writer in Appletons' Jour- 
nal says : " The society [for the House of Refuge 
was managed by the Society for the Eeformation of 
Juvenile Delinquents of the City of New York] 
began operations on the 1st of January, 1825, in the 




old soldiers' barracks, occupied during the War of 
1812-'15. The site of the barracks was about one 
mile from the outskirts of the city and two miles 
from the City Hall. It is now the heart of the city, 
forming the charming park known as Madison 
Square. It was then considered out of town. A 
lady of the city recollects, when young, being invited 
to visit the institution. The day was devoted to the 
object, and she was so fatigued by the jaunt that 
she was sick for a week in consequence." And this 
was going from down town to Madison Square. 

After the burning of the House of Refuge the 
Parade Ground seems to have been abandoned to an 



12 MADISON SQUARE. 

unconfined class of boys, for we read that it served 
" as a skating place in winter and was a source of 
infinite delight in summer to the throngs of boys 
that then roamed the streets at will and wallowed in 
its muddy shallows." 

More than one of our present parks have been 
reclaimed as breathing places on account of their 
swampy nature rendering them unfit for residential 
purposes. Conspicuous illustrations of this fact are 
afforded in Washington, Gramercy, and Madison 
Squares. Some years ago General Egbert L. Viele, 
an enthusiast on the subject of parks, and the author 
of the earliest plan of Central Park, made an elab- 
orate topographical map of New York city, showing 
the original courses of these ancient streams. We 
find that one of these nameless streams [it has been 
called Cedar Creek, according to some persons, but 
General Viele does not recognize this name] has its 
origin to the w^est of the Square, and, after passing 
along the line of Broadway, turns eastward and 
skirts the northern end of the park ; then passing 
south, it there broadens into a pond, whence it fol- 
lows a southeasterly course toward the East River, 
into which it empties at about Seventeenth Street. 
In recent years the Metropolitan Life Insurance 
Company, whose beautiful building adorns the south- 
eastern corner of the Square, has used its waters 
for cleaning and washing. 

Meanwhile the city was slowly extending nortli- 
ward. In 1837 the tunnel between Thirty-third and 
Forty-second Streets was opened. Of this event the 



MADISON SQUARE. 13 

New York Mirror, long edited by Nathaniel P. 
Willis, says : 

" Philadelphia and Boston are both famous for 
their lions, their Fairmount Waterworks, and their 
Mount Auburn Cemetery, but they must now hide 
their diminished heads for a while until they can 
get up something to beat the tunnel on Fourth 
Avenue." 

Five years later water from the Croton River was 
introduced into the distributing reservoir on Fifth 
Avenue, between Fortieth and Forty-second Streets. 
The event w^as celebrated on October ]4, 1842, and, 
says Mrs. Lamb, " with an imposing military and 
civic procession seven miles in length." George P. 
Morris, the poet, wrote of this event : 

" Round the aqueducts of story, 

As the mists of Lethe throng, 
Croton's waves, in all their glory, 

Troop in melody along. 
Ever sparkling, bright, and single 

Will this rock-ribbed stream appear, 
When posterity shall mingle 

Like the gathered waters here." 

Let us also glance to the east and the west. 
Felix Oldboy tells us that Bull's Head village ex- 
tended from Second to Fourth Avenues and from 
Twenty-third to Twenty-seventh Streets. Here was 
the great cattle mart of the city, and here it had 
been for twenty years. 

On the west was Chelsea village, whose colonial 
houses reward those whose antiquarian ambitions 
lead them to search that old quarter. The block 



14 



MADISON SQUARE. 



between Twentieth and Twenty-first Streets and 
Ninth and Tenth Avenues, on whicii are the build- 
ings of the General Theological Seminary of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church, preserves the name of 
Chelsea Square. This block was originally j)art of 
the farm of Clement C. Moore, who is best known 
as the author of 

" 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the 
house 
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse." 

Rapid transit was introduced in 1832, and horse- 
cars ran along Fourth Avenue from Prince Street 
to Murray Hill at intervals of fifteen minutes. A 
fare of twenty-five cents was 
charged. New York was fast 
becoming a metropolis. 

In 1844, James Har^^er, of 
the famous publishing firm, 
'^\ ; /a ■ was chosen mayor on the Na- 

v^ *' y/\ tive American ticket, and dur- 

ing his administration com- 
missioners were appointed to 
acquire the lands forming the 
Square. Their report was 
/ J^ ^ confirmed bv the Supreme 

(y Court early m May, 1847, 

and the Square was ordered 
opened by the Common Council on the lOtli of that 
month. Its area at that time was 6*84 acres. 

Beyond acquiring possession of the property and 
declaring it open, very little seems to have been done 



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MADISON SQUARE. 15 

with it. A contemporaneous Description of the 
City of New York, published in 1847, says : " Madi- 
son and Hamilton Squares, and some other public 
areas, though laid down in the plan of the city, are 
not yet arranged and opened." The Mexican War 
then took place and absorbed the public interest. 
Later, its outlines were marked by a rude wooden 
fence, and paths connecting the streets and avenues 
were laid out. 

Of the buildings that surround Madison Square, 
the first to achieve special interest was Corporal 
Thompson's Madison Cottage, where, according to 
Mrs. Van Kensselaer, " at the Sign of the Buckhorn, 
explained by a huge pair of veritable antlers, the trot- 




ting men of the period found frequent refreshment 
for themselves, if not for their beasts." It was the post 
tavern used for changing horses and later became a 
road house. In the New York Herald of May 9, 
1847, we find the following reading notice : 



16 MADISON SQUARE. 

" Madison" Cottage. — This beautiful place of 
resort opposite Madison Square, corner of Twenty- 
third Street and Broadway, is open for the season, 
and Palmer's omnibuses drive to the door. It is one 
of the most agreeable spots for an afternoon's lounge 
in the suburbs of our city. Go and see." 

It occupied the site where the Fifth Avenue Hotel 
now stands. In 1852 it was the chief house in the 
immediate vicinity. 

It soon gave way to Franconi's Hippodrome, 
which was built by a syndicate of eight American 
showmen, among whom were Avery Smith, Richard 
Sands, and Seth B. Howe. The building was of 
brick, two stories high, and. seven hundred feet in 
circumference. The arena, which was in the center, 
was uncovered, and here were given chariot races and 
circus performances. It was opened on May 2, 1853, 
when over four thousand people were present. For 
two seasons it continued in favor. 

A church followed, and selected the corner of 
Twenty-fourth Street and Madison Avenue as the 
site for its home. In 1834, William Adams, a gradu- 
ate of 1827 at Yale, and at the Andover Theological 
Seminary in 1830, was called to the charge of the 
Central Presbyterian Church in Broome Street. 
His congregation founded the Madison Square Pres- 
byterian Church in 1853, and of which he continued 
pastor until 1873. For nearly half a century Dr. 
Adams was one of the leaders of his denomination, 
and exercised a potent influence over the religious 
thought of New York city until his death in 1880. 



MADISON SQUARE. 



17 




A conspicuous event in the history of Christianity 
occurred in this church on October 5, 1873. The 
Evangelical Alliance of the World was gathered at 
that time in convention 
in New York, and on 
Sunday afternoon a com- 
munion service was held 
in which representatives 
from every denomination 
and almost every nation 
on earth took part. So 
conspicuous a recognition 
of the unity of Christian- 
ity received adverse criti- 
cism from certain stricter 
members of the English 
Church, especially so as 
the Dean of Canterbury 
had participated in the 

service. Dr. Adams soon published a letter replying 
to the critics. It silenced all animadversion. In 
his pastorate he was followed by Dr. William Tucker, 
who in 1880 was succeeded by the present incum- 
bent. Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst, who has made his 
influence felt in his determined efforts to suppress 
venal influences in municipal politics. 

" The rapid improvements," says Mrs. Lamb, 
" in Fifth Avenue above Madison Square date from 
the completion of the Madison Square Presbyterian 
Church ill 185-4," but unquestionably the World's 
Fair held in Crystal Palace during 1853 had much 



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18 MADISON SQUARE. 

to do with them. For this first international expo- 
sition held in America, a " house of ghiss," modeled 
after the Crystal Palace of London, bat much more 
beautiful as an architectural work, was built. It oc- 
cupied the plot of ground on Sixth Avenue between 
Fortieth and Forty-second Streets, now known as 
Bryant Park. The fair was opened by President 
Pierce, with many distinguished personages and some 
twenty thousand people, on July 4, 1853. Subse- 
quently the building was used by the American 
Institute for its fairs, but was destroyed by fire on 
October 5, 1858. 

Two other circumstances tended to make Madi- 
son Square a desirable residential quarter, for we are 
rapidly approaching the time when among the 
leaders of fashion in New York, was 

" Miss Flora McFlimsey, of Madison Square." 

In 1856 a statue was erected to George Washing- 
ton in Union Square. It was the first of its kind to 
be set up after the downfall of that of George III 
in Bowling Green. In the same year a statue and 
monument were authorized by the Common Council 
to be raised to the memory of General William J. 
Worth. This famous military officer was of distin- 
guished New York lineage, and had won fame for 
himself during the War of 1812, and again in the 
war with Mexico. He was the first to plant the flag 
of the United States on the Eio Grande, and he was 
also the first to enter the City of Mexico, where 
a2:ain with his own hand ho cut down the Mexican 



MADISON SQUARE. 



19 



flag that waved from the National Palace. Swords 
were given him by Congress and by the State of 
New York. 

General Worth was a man of tall and command- 
ing figure, and was said to be the best horseman and 
handsomest man in the army. He died in 1849, of 
cholera, in San Antonio, 
the headquarters of the 
Department of Texas, of 
which he had been placed 
in command subsequent 
to the war. His remains 
were brought to New 
York and placed tem- 
porarily in Greenwood 
Cemetery. Finally, on 
November 23, 1857, they 
were conveyed to City 
Hall, where they rested 
in state for two days. 
Then, at the time chosen 
for the inauguration of 

the memorial, they were escorted by a large military 
procession and deposited in a vault under the monu- 
ment in the triangular plot on Fifth Avenue be- 
tween Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Streets. 

This funeral procession was only one of the 
many that have since marched along the west side 
of the Square. In 1865 the remains of the martyred 
Lincoln, escorted by a procession five miles in length, 
passed by on its mournful journey from Washington 




20 MADISON SQUARE. 

city to Springfield. Less imposing, but of sad in- 
terest, was the funeral of Horace Greeley, which on 
a dull day in November, 1872, passed down Fifth 
Avenue, attended by the President, the Vice-Presi- 
dent, and Chief Justice of the United States, with a 
great number of public men of both parties. Great- 
est of all, however, was the procession, led by Gen- 
eral Hancock, that escorted the remains of General 
Grant, the nation's most distinguished military hero, 
to their last resting place at beautiful Claremont, 
overlooking the Hudson River. It was the most 
magnificent spectacle of the kind ever witnessed in 
this country. Like Napoleon, he desired that his 
remains might rest in the city of his home and 
among the people he loved. 

*' Ye living soldiers of the mighty war, 

Once more from roaring cannon and the drums, 
And bugles blown at morn, the summons comes : 
Forget the halting limb, each wound and scar ; 
Once more your captain calls to you : 
Come to his last review." 

Finally, all that was mortal of General Sherman 
— last of the greater heroes of the civil war — was 
taken from his home in West Seventy-first Street, 
in February, 1891, and conveyed along the familiar 
route, which he himself had so often trodden, on its 
way to the train by which his body was taken to 
St. Louis, there to be interred by the side of his 
wife and son. 

We have wandered somewhat from the strict 
chronological order of events, and must return. The 



MADISON SQUARE. 21 

Fifth Avenue Hotel, occupying the southwest cor- 
ner of the Square, was opened to the public in 1859. 
Franconi's Hippodrome had been torn down to give 
place for the more pretentious edifice, which took 
more than two years to build. 

Even in this democratic country royalty com- 
mands respect, and many royal visitors have been 
entertained at this hotel. Among these may be 
mentioned the Prince of Wales, who visited New 
York in 18G0. The learned Dom Pedro, of Brazil, 
with his empress, had apartments at the Fifth Ave- 
nue in 1876. Royalty, however, has constituted but 
a very small proportion of its many distinguished 
guests. Presidents of the United States, United 
States Senators, Congressmen, governors, judges, 
generals, admirals, ambassadors and others have 
been received at this famous place. 

If we have dallied overlong on the west side, we 
w^ill make amends by hastening to the north and 
east sides. These were soon lined with elegant resi- 
dences of the social leaders of New York city. 
There was no Ward McAllister in those days to de- 
cide as to the precedence of the " Four Hundred " of 
ante-leUuin times, but, if any palm was to be given 
to a leader, then certainly Leonard W. Jerome 
would have been promptly chosen. He was associ- 
ated with his elder brother, Addison G. Jerome, 
and William R. Travers, in the brokerage business. 
His boldness in Wall Street made him conspicuous. 
He did nothing by halves, and his entertainments 
were the town talk of the time. His residence was 



22 



MADISON SQUARE. 



on the corner of Twenty-sixth Street and Madison 
Avenue. The three Misses Jerome were the belles 




of the period. They married abroad, and one of 
them became Lady Randolph Chnrclull. 

A younger brother was Lawrence R. Jerome, who 
was one of the best-known and most popular club- 
men of New York and London. It is gossiped that 
Brander Matthews had him in mind wdien he drew 
that charming character of Uncle Larry, who comes 



MADISON SQUARE. 23 

and goes in his pleasant stories of New York. Be 
this true or not we can not say, but certainly Mr. 
Jerome was that kind of a man. 

On the same side of the Square as the Jerome 
mansion was the home of William K. Travers, fa- 
mous as a wit and raconteur. He was born in Bal- 
timore, and married a daughter of Reverdy John- 
son. In 1853 he came to this city and joined the 
New York Stock Exchange. Four years later he 
became associated in business with Leonard W. Je- 
rome, and when the partnership expired each mem- 
ber was supposed to be worth over a million dollars. 
Mr. Travers continued in business and was success- 
ful. He was noted for his lavish generosity, and 
was prominent in sporting and club circles, being 
President of the New York Athletic Club at the 
time of his death. His many stories were in every 
one's mouth, and an imj^ediment in his speech made 
them mere characteristic. He died in Bermuda in 
March, 1887, where he had been ordered by his 
physician. One of his last jokes is well worth pres- 
ervation. On being asked how he was getting on, 
he replied : " As well as could be expected," and 
then, with the inevitable stutter, said : " My physi- 
cian sent me here for change and rest ; and the 
waiters are getting the change, and the hotel-keep- 
ers the rest." Peace be to his ashes, for he was a 
true gentleman ! 

On the north side was the residence of Benjamin 
H. Field (No. 21 East Twenty-sixth Street), who 
died in 1893. He was well known for his active 



MADISON SQUARE. 25 

connection with many charities. He was one of the 
incorporators of the Home for Incurables, and for 
long years its president. The chapel belonging to 
the home was one of his gifts. Mr. Field was promi- 
nent in the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 
Children, the Free Circulating Library, the Eye and 
Ear Infirmary, and other charities. Also, he was an 
incorporator of the American Museum of Natural 
History, and in 1886 was President of the New 
York Historical Society. 

Other residents on the north side included the 
Iselin family, at No. 23, whose long connection with 
New York society has made them well known. The 
senior member of the family has been prominently 
connected with many institutions in a fiduciary ca- 
pacity. Frank Work, who has not missed his daily 
ride to Central Park for more than a quarter of a 
century, and Mrs. Morgan, whose wonderful collec- 
tion of bric-a-brac, including the unique peach-blow 
vase, was sold a few years ago, have their homes on 
the north side. Likewise among the residents on 
the north side were William and John O'Brien, of 
the banking firm in Wall Street ; one of the elder 
Schieffelins, of the old drug house of W. H. SchieJfe- 
lin & Co. ; and James Burden, whose iron and steel 
interests in Troy have made him wealthy. On the 
corner of Fifth Avenue and Twenty-sixth Street was 
the home of Dr. John F. Gray, famous as the lead- 
ing representative of the homcjeopathic school in the 
city. His residence subsequent to his death was re- 
modeled and made into the Hotel Brunswick. 



26 MADISON SQUARE. 

On the east side were also the homes of many dis- 
tinguished citizens. At No. 37 was the residence of 
James Stokes, for many years an associate of William 
E. Dodge in the metal firm, best known as Phelps, 
Dodge & Co. It was the first residence erected on 
the Square, and was built in 1851, when Mr. Stokes 
moved from Thirtieth Street and East Eiver (Kip's 
Bay). He married a daughter of Anson G. Phelps, 
and died there in 1881. His daughters still occupy 
the home, but his son, W. E. D. Stokes, has moved 
up town. Dr. Edmund R. Peaslee, who died in 1878, 
resided in No. 25. Besides enjoying an extensive 
practice, he achieved eminence as a specialist, and was 
at the time of his death Professor of Gynaecology at 
Bellevue Hospital Medical College, His own pro- 
fession conferred honors upon him, and he was at 
one time President of the Kew York Academy of 
Medicine. No. 19 was the home of William Laim- 
beer, Jr., who represented the district in tlie State 
Senate during 1864-'65, and was otherwise promi- 
nent in political affairs. 

On the southeast corner of Twenty-fifth Street 
and Madison Avenue is one of the earlier family ho- 
tels called " The Madison." It was at one time the 
residence of Peter Ronalds, a connection of the Lor- 
illard family. Mrs. Ronalds had an exquisite voice, 
and invitations to her musical entertainments were 
highly prized. In recent years she has lived abroad, 
chiefly in London, where she is said to have much 
influence in court circles. On the same block, but 
at the corner of Twenty-fourth Street, is the house 



MADISON SQUARE. 



27 



long occupied by John David Wolfe, who was born 
in this city in 1792, and lived to be eighty years of 
age. He was a successful hardware merchant, and 
acquired a large fortune. Mr. Wolfe was prominent 
for his activity in organizations having to do with 
the improvement of the condition of the community. 
He gave largely to various philanthropic bodies, of 
many of which he was an officer. Mr. Wolfe mar- 
ried a daughter of Peter Lorillard. He died in 
New York city in May, 1872. 

The active philanthropies of this noble citizen 
were continued by his daughter, Catharine Lorillard 
Wolfe, who inherited from 
her father's and grand- "' ^ ' ^^ 

father's estates a well-in- 
vested fortune of about 
$10,000,000. From the 
time of the death of her 
father until her own de- 
cease in 1887 it is said 
that she gave away about 
$2,000,000 for religious, 
educational, and chari- 
table purposes. Grace 
Church, of which her 
father was senior warden 
at the time of his death, 

and of which she herself was a member, was a 
favorite object of her bounty. The Chantry, on 
the south side, and Grace Home, on the north, the 
grand organ, reredos, and a large stained-glass win- 




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28 



MADISON SQUARE. 



dow at the back of the transept, were among her 
more conspicuous gifts. 

The drinking fountain at the southeast end of 
the Square was presented to the city by Miss Wolfe. 




It was designed by Miss Emma Stebbins. Her home 
is now owned by her kinsman, David Wolfe Bishop. 
Adjoining the Madison Square Presbyterian 
Church was a row of brownstone houses, two of 
which were occupied by prominent New-Yorkers. 



MADISON SQUARE. 29 

No. 3 was the residence of William H. Appleton, 
now the senior member of the firm of D. Appleton 
& Co. Mr. Appleton was also prominently con- 
nected with the New York Life Insurance Company. 
He was one of the incorporators of the Century 
Club, and in other ways identified with many insti- 
tutions of the metropolis. 

On the corner of Madison Avenue and Twenty- 
third Street was the home of William Lane, who 
was one of the leading wholesale drygoods dealers 
of his time. He had an extensive trade in the 
Southern States, and was ruined by the civil war. 
Among his guests was Jefferson Davis, who is said 
to have been entertained by him during his last visit 
to New York, immediately before the war. Mr. 
Lane sold his residence to S. M. L. Barlow, who from 
1849 till his death in 1889 was one of the successful 
lawyers in New York. He represented the English 
stockholders of the Erie Railway in their efforts to 
oust the Fisk-Gould management in 1871-72. 

Mr. Barlow gave much attention to the gather- 
ing of rare and curious books, and his collection of 
Americana was one of the largest in the country. 
It was sold at auction subsequent to his death, and 
realized 182,000. In addition, he had a rare collec- 
tion of paintings, statuary, and bric-a-brac. 

Mr. Barlow married a daughter of Peter Town- 
send, whose large smelting works not only yielded 
him a princely income but made him noteworthy 
as a successful ironmaster. He lived on the south 
side of Twenty-third Street, almost opposite the 



30 



MADISON SQUARE. 



Square. Another of the daughters became the wife 
of General Thomas F. Meagher, an Irish-American 
officer who fought gallantly for the Union in the 
civil war. James B. Colgate, William Colbv, Michael 
Mahoney and John Scott were well-known residents 
on the south side. 

It must be remembered that Madison Square re- 




ceived its recognition as a social center not only from 
those who were fortunate enough to secure homes 
within the precincts of the Square, but also from 
those who resided in its immediate vicinity. In the 
adjacent streets, both between Madison and Fourth 
Avenues and Fifth and Sixth Avenues, as well as in 
Fifth and Madison Avenues, were the homes of many 
of the first families who contributed much to the 
social gayety of the period. 

With the beginning of the Sixties came the civil 
war, and New York became an important distribu- 



MADISON SQUARE. 31 

ting center. Recruits were gathered here before 
being sent to the front. The public parks were 
turned into camping grounds, and the site of the 
present Post Office was occupied by wooden barracks. 
For a time Madison Square had its share of troops, 
and white tents covered the turf, in front of which 
sentries paced their weary rounds in anticipation of 
the time when they should be called upon to do duty 
along the banks of that river which played so im- 
portant a part in the great war, and from where the 
news so often came, " All quiet along the Potomac 
to-night," to gladden the anxious hearts of those 
who watched and prayed by the firesides. 

We have already referred to the Jerome mansion. 
It has a history that would require many pages to 
tell. Leonard W. Jerome was a strong Union man, 
and subscribed 135,000 to build a fast cruiser to 
pursue the Confederate privateer Alabama, and was 
Treasurer of the Union Defense Committee. It was 
but natural, therefore, in 1868, when the Union 
League Club was seeking larger quarters, that it 
should take his house for its home. This club, or- 
ganized in 18G3 "to discountenance disloyalty to the 
United States, and for the promotion of good gov- 
ernment and the elevation of American citizenship," 
remained housed in the Jerome mansion until 1881, 
when it moved to its present quarters, on the corner 
of Fifth Avenue and Thirty-ninth Streets. Its 
presidents during this period were John Jay, Jack- 
son S. Schultz, William J. Iloppin, Joseph H. 
Choate, George Cabot Ward, and Hamilton Fish, 



32 MADISON SQUARE. 

each of whom has been identified with many im- 
portant interests in this city, while John Jay and 
Hamilton Fish were called to fill high places in na- 
tional affairs. 

After the removal of the Union League Club, the 
Turf (during 1881-'82) and Madison (during 1883) 
Clubs occupied the building, but in 1884 it was 
leased to the University Club, which had outgrown 
its quarters in the Caswell House, on the corner of 
Fifth Avenue and Thirty-fifth Street. Various al- 
terations were made in the building, including the 
removal of the little theatre which had been the 
scene of so many charitable and amateur entertain- 
ments. It is now used as the dining-room. In this 
house the University has prospered greatly, and it is 
now not only one of the foremost clubs in the city, 
but also the foremost university club in the United 
States. Its presidents have included Henry H. 
Anderson, George A. Peters, and the present in- 
cumbent, James W. Alexander. 

While referring to clubs in connection with the 
square, mention must be made of the Xew York 
Club. This organization, founded in 1845, is next 
to the Union Club in age. For some years it occu- 
pied the house facing Twenty- fifth Street, betw^een 
Broadway and Fifth Avenue, and directly opposite 
the Worth Monument ; but as this building is all 
breadth and no depth, it was unsatisfactory for club 
purposes, and was abandoned in 1887 for its present 
home on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Thirty- 
fifth Street, being the Caswell House remodeled, 



MADISON SQUARE. 33 

which was occupied for so many years by the Uni- 
versity Club. 

This Madison Square Bank building, as it has 
been recently styled, has filled many purposes during 
its existence. Originally the home of the Haight 
family, it became in time the Worth House, a hotel ; 
but its defects of construction made it undesirable. 
Then it was used for business purposes, and Carlton, 
the publisher, moved his salesroom there from under 
the Fifth Avenue Hotel. The New York Club then 
occupied it, while more recently the unfortunate 
Madison Square Bank used it for offices. In the 
upper floors were the editorial and publication rooms 
of The Cosmopolitan Magazine. 

Eeturning to the northeast corner of the Square, 
space must be afforded for an account of the block 
bounded by Madison and Fourth Avenues and Twen- 
ty-sixth and Twenty-seventh Streets, now occupied 
by the Madison Square Garden — truly the most 
beautiful building in New York city. This site 
was for many years the passenger station of the New 
York and Harlem Railway. As early as 1831 the 
Common Council granted that corporation the right 
to run cars " from the Astor House, along the Park, 
through Park Row, Centre and Broome Streets, 
Bowery and Fourth Avenue to Twenty-seventh 
Street; from there, with large cars, to Harlem 
River." The down town route was used for the 
first line of horse-cars in the city, and the Harlem 
Railroad was the first steam railway to leave the 
metropolis. Later the Common Council allowed 



34 



MADISON SQUARE. 



the Harlem Kailroad to grant permission to the 
New York and New Haven Railroad to run on their 
tracks " on that portion of the route of the New 
York and Harlem Railroad from the corner of 
Fourth Avenue and Twenty-seventh Street to Har- 
lem River." 

Time changes all things, and the modern traveler 
seeking a train at the Grand Central Station would 
scarcely recognize the site as that which the New 
York Mirror once described in the following elo- 
quent words : " We know of nothing in any city in 




the Union to compare with the magniticent view 
that opens upon you when emerging from the upper 
end of the artificial ravine that has been cloven 
down some seventy feet through the solid rocks of 
Mount Prospect." Horses drew the cars from the 
station to the opening of the tunnel at Thirty- third 
Street, where the locomotive was attached. This 



MADISON SQUARE. 35 

condition of affairs continued until the opening of 
the Grand Central Station, in 1871. 

For a time after it was abandoned by the rail- 
roads, it remained vacant, but in 1873 P. T. Bar- 
num, the great showman, secured a lease of the 
property and proposed to carry out his " long-cher- 
ished plan of exhibiting a Roman Hippodrome, 
Zoological Institute, Aquaria, and Museum," of un- 
surpassable extent and magnificence, in which he 
expected to spend two hundred thousand dollars. 
For some reason he failed to make the garden a 
place of permanent amusement, although as the 
years came and went he was for some weeks a regu- 
lar visitor to the city, generally presenting his show 
at this place. In order to protect the tents, brick 
walls were erected and united by a sort of makeshift 
roof. This partially covered them. 

Durincr the summer months the interior was 

o 

made to resemble a garden, and tables were arranged 
on which refreshments were served while various 
orchestras played. For a time Theodore Thomas 
wielded his baton here ; and then came the military 
band led by Patrick S. Gil more, and the place was 
called Gilmore's Garden. A recent writer says of it : 
"Dog shows and chicken shows, horse shows and 
industrial exhibitions, also claimed shelter in the 
queer, casually developed barrack, finding accom- 
modation nowhere else, but finding it more and 
more uncomfortable here as their importance stead- 
ily increased." It must not be forgotten that the 
great revival exercises conducted by Moody and 



36 MADISON SQUARE. 

Sankey were held here, after their return from Eu- 
rope in 1875. 

The old buildings were torn down in 1889, and 
gave place to the present superb structure, which is 
said to be the largest building in America devoted 
entirely to amusements. It is four hundred and 
sixty-five feet long and two hundred feet wide, and 
its walls rise to a height of sixty-five feet. Its most 
characteristic architectural feature is undoubtedly 
its famous tower, that extends skyward with its 
lines unbroken for two hundred and forty -nine 
feet, while to the top of the figure of Diana, which, 
poised in mid-air, serving as a vane, is nearly a hun- 
dred feet higher. As is well known, this tower is 
derived from the Giralda in Seville, Spain, but is 
not a co|)y, as commonly claimed. 

The cost of the building was about 13,000,000, 
and it was opened by a concert on the evening of 
June 6, 1890. Eduard Strauss, the Viennese con- 
ductor, was the leader, while the second part of the 
entertainment included as attractions two grand bal- 
lets. On that occasion seventeen thousand people 
were present. Horse shows, dog shows, flower 
shows, and poultry shows have since been annually 
held within its walls. During the week of May 2-7, 
1892, the Actors' Fund Fair was held in it. The 
entire floor was laid out as a miniature village of 
one street in the midst of a plain. The buildings 
were models of famous theaters of ancient London 
and older New York, and the architecture and pic- 
turesque local coloring of several centuries and of 



38 MADISON SQUARE. 

places far distant from each other were cleverly 
brought into harmony. Very nearly 1200,000 was 
netted for the fund on this occasion. 

In the same month Adelina Patti sang here to 
three of the largest audiences ever assembled at con- 
certs ; and during May, 1894, a music festival was 
held, at which Materna, Emma Juch, and other dis- 
tinguished soloists took part. Madison Square Gar- 
den has also been the scene of conspicuous social 
functions, the greatest of which was the ball given 
at the close of the celebrations held in New York in 
honor of the discovery of America by Columbus, 
on April 27, 1893. 

The resources for entertainment of the Madison 
Square Garden are by no means exhausted with its 
amphitheater. It has a concert hall, in which, to 
quote again from Mrs. Van Rensselaer's article on 
The Madison Square Garden, " traditions of famous 
masters and famous performers are quickly gathering 
within its walls, and for lecture purposes it is also 
often in request." The Garden Theatre, which oc- 
cupies the northwest corner of the building, is one 
of the most artistic of New York's smaller and newer 
theatres. It was opened on September 27, 1890, 
with the production of the farcical comedy of Dr. 
Bill. The roof garden, which is on the Madison 
Avenue side, is devoted to vaudeville performances 
during the summer months. It was opened on 
May 30, 1892, when an audience of nearly four 
thousand persons was present. Then, finally, there 
is the view from the top of the tower. It can not 



MADISON SQUAliE. 39 

be described. To fully appreciate it one must go 
and see it. 

We return to the west side, in order to briefly 
mention several of the larger buildings there. The 
Albemarle Hotel, on the corner of Twenty-fourth 
Street and Broadway, is a hostelry of long standing, 
and was built early in the Sixties. The ground that 
it occupies was formerly used as a stone-yard. With- 
in a few years it has passed into the control of the 
Hoffman House Company, a corporation managing 
the Hoffman House, which is adjoining, and extend- 
ing to Twenty-fifth Street, with an annex on that 
street. This hotel was opened to the public in 1864. 
It stands on the property of the Hoffman estate, of 
which the Rev. Eugene A. Hoffman, Dean of the 
General Theological Seminary of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church on Chelsea Square, is the chief 
owner. It is something of a political headquarters, 
and in recent years has become to the leaders of the 
Democratic party what the Fifth Avenue Hotel is 
to the leaders of the Republican party. At the 
close of the last presidential election the returns of 
one faction were received at the Hoffman House, and 
those of the other at the Fifth Avenue Hotel ; while 
on the transparency high above the Square, on the 
building forming the triangle between Fifth Avenue 
and Broadway on the south end, were given impar- 
tially all the returns to the assembled thousands 
below. For more than thirty years this junction 
has been the place where the election returns were 



40 MADISON SQUARE. 

published, and to see it on the night of an election 
is one of the sights of New York. 

But we have not finished with the Hoffman 
House. The bar on the lower floor of the Twenty- 
fourth Street side is famous as an art gallery. Among 
the works specially conspicuous are Bouguereau's 
Nymphs and Satyrs ; Narcissus, by Correggio ; Holy 
Mother, by Demonceaux ; Russian Mail Carrier, by 
Chelmonski ; Boudoir of an Eastern Princess, by 
Etienne ; also Ball's statue of Eve, in marble ; Schles- 
singer's Pan and Bacchante, in bronze ; and The 
Egg-Dancer, a fine piece of old bronze. At certain 
hours of the day arrangements are made for the ad- 
mission of ladies. The Bartholdi Hotel, on the 
southwest corner of Broadway and Twenty-third 
Street, is the latest of the hotels that are at the 
south end of the Square. 

In 1870 Madison Square was placed under the 
care and control of the Department of Public Parks 
as now organized, and in December of that year the 
plan for its present arrangement was adopted. For 
a time it was surrounded by an iron railing, but the 
appearance was not satisfactory, and it was trans- 
ferred to Bryant Park, on Sixth Avenue. Since 
that time the Square has continued to improve, and 
no pleasanter spot can be found in the city than this 
attractive little park on an afternoon in the late 
spring or early autumn. 

One of the features of the Square — for he must 
so be regarded — is George Francis Train, who for 
years has made his way daily from his home in the 



Madison square. 



41 



Ashland House, or more recently the Continental 
Hotel, to some shady nook under the trees, where 
he reads his papers and plays with the children, with 
whom he is a great favorite. For some years Mr. 
Train refused to hold conversation with any one, 
but in spite of his eccentricities the little ones are 
fond of him ; and a 
man whom the chil- 
dren love must surely 
be a good - hearted 
man. 

A conspicuous ad- 
dition to the Square 
was made in 1876, 
when a colossal statue 
of William H. Sew- 
ard, representing the 
statesman as seated 
in a senatorial chair 
of Eenaissance char- 
acter, one hand hold- 
ing a scroll and the 
other hanging over 
the arm and liolding 
a pen, was given to 
the city by a number 
of admirers of the 
great war Secretary 

of State. The sculptor was Eandolph Rogers, and 
the result can not be claimed to be an artistic suc- 
cess, for Mr. Seward was a man " all head and no 




42 



MADISON SQUARE. 



legs," whereas the statue represents the statesman 
with legs of unusual length and prominence. It is 
at the southwest corner of the Square, facing Broad- 
way, and was unveiled on September 27, 1876. The 
orator of the day was William M. Evarts, who, like 
Seward, had been Senator and Secretary of State of 
the United States. He said : 

" Great was he 
in intellectual ability, 
great in moral quali- 
ties, great in the 
opportunities which 
served him, great in 
the perils which he 
encountered, great in 
the triumph of his 
politics, and great in 
tlie prosperity of his 
statesmanship. And 
if the policy upon 
which he acted was 
wise and conspicuous, 
all nations could be- 
hold it, all nations 
could judge of it ; and 
he is great in his fame, 
which is now secured 
alike against discord- 
ant opinions in his 
lifetime and against 
posthumous detrac- 
tion.'^ 

By general consent, one of the finest examples 
of contemporaneous American art in sculpture is 
the statue of Admiral Farra2:ut, in the northwest cor- 




MADISON SQUARE. 43 

ner of Madison Square, by Augustus St. Gaudens. 
The admiral is represented as standing, with his legs 
slightly apart, in a sailor's attitude, as if on deck. 
Marine glasses are in his hand, and the skirt of his 
coat is thrown back, as if blown by the wind. The 
pedestal, which is equally a work of art, was designed 
by Stanford White. It is formed as a bench with a 
tall back, in a shallow, circular shape. It was un- 
veiled on May 26, 1881, and presented to the city by 
Secretary of Navy William M. Hunt, on behalf of 
the Farragut Memorial Association. At the moment 
of its presentation, John H. Knowles, the sailor who 
lashed Farragut to the mast in the battle of Mobile 
Bay, assisted by J. B, Millner, who was also on the 
flagship Hartford, drew aside the drapings from the 
statue ; and B. S. Osborne, the sailor who hoisted 
the colors of the flagship as she entered the engage- 
ment, displayed an admiral's flag on a pole at the 
corner of the stand, which served as a signal for an 
admiral's salute of seventeen guns. Joseph H. 
Choate was the orator, and his address began with — 

" The fame of naval heroes has always capti- 
vated and charmed the imagination of men. The 
romance of the sea that hangs about them, their 
picturesque and dramatic achievements, the deadly 
perils that surround them, their loyalty to the flag 
that floats over them, their triumphs snatched from 
the jaws of defeat, and deaths in the hour of victory, 
inspire a warmer enthusiasm and a livelier symj^athy 
than are awarded to equal deeds on land. We come 
together to-day to recall the memory and to crown 
the statue of one of the dearest of these idols of man- 



44 



MADISON SQUARE. 



kind — of one who has done more for us than all com- 
bined — of one whose name will ever stir like a trum- 
pet the hearts of his grateful countrymen." 

The last of the statues erected in Madison Square 
was raised to one of New York's favorite sons. 

From 1867 to 1881 
Roscoe Conkling rep- 
resented the Empire 
State in the United 
States Senate. He 
then retired from 
^ public life and re- 
sumed his career as 
a lawyer, settling in 
this city. His services 
were at once secured 
by several corporations, 
and his practice be- 
came an extremely 
lucrative one. In 
the great blizzard of 
March 12, 1888, un- 
able to obtain satis- 
factory conveyance, he 
walked from his office up 
town and was lost in Madi- 
son Square, where he was res- 
cued by friends. The effects of this exposure, added 
to those of a cold previously contracted, caused a 
serious illness which resulted in the formation of 
an abscess at the base of the brain. It terminated 




MADISON SQUARE. 45 

fatally six weeks later, and the brilliant statesman 
was gathered to his fathers. 

His many friends subscribed for a memorial 
statue of him, which now marks the site at the south- 
east corner of the Square, where he was overcome 
by the blizzard. It is of bronze, and represents 
the orator standing erect as if addressing one of 
the many audiences that were gathered to hear 
the convincing tones of his remarkable eloquence. 
The artist was John Q. A. Ward, of New York, 
and the statue was unveiled without ceremony on 
December 3, 1893. 

We have elsewhere in this sketch made mention 
of the sad processions that have passed along the 
west side of the Square, but that side has also been 
the scene of gayety. The reviewing stand of all 
processions is commonly erected on the triangle on 
which the Worth Monument stands. From here 
many of the annual reviews of the National Guard 
have been seen; great political processions, in which 
if the party organs tell the truth, each faction by 
actual count had a greater number of persons in line 
than the other, have been reviewed by the leading 
candidates of each party. The three days' almost 
continuous parade by which the centennial anniver- 
sary of the inauguration of George Washington was 
celebrated on April 29, 1889, was reviewed from here 
by President Harrison. The pageants by which the 
four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of Amer- 
ica was celebrated on October 12, 1892, passed by 
here; as did the parade on April 29, 1893, forming 



46 MADISON SQUARE. 

the beginning of the events that culminated in the 
opening of the World's Fair in Chicago. 

Nor should we forget to tell how for many years 
our City Fathers, remembering, perhaps, that they 
had once been boys, had compassion on the youth of 
the city, and yearly on the night of the Fourth of 
July set off municipal fireworks in the public squares, 
and especially in Madison Square. 

On the corner of Twenty-sixth Street and Fifth 
Avenue stands the Hotel Brunswick, a house fre- 
quented largely by English tourists, and also noted 
for its restaurant, which is much resorted to for sup- 
pers after the theaters are out. From in front of 
its doors the parades of the Coaching Club have 
started, and in its dining hall they have held their 
annual banquets. The " Tally-ho," pioneer of 
coaches, driven by the genial Delancey Kane, who 
is connected by marriage with the Iselins, made its 
first start from in front of the Brunswick almost 
twenty years ago. 

Diagonally opposite, also facing Fifth Avenue, 
is Delmonico's restaurant. It needs mention, but 
hardly description. A recent writer speaks of it as 
" the most famous restaurant in the United States " ; 
but is there a place in the world where civilized 
man eats in a civilized fashion that has not heard of 
Delmonico's? It followed the fashionable world 
up town a score of years ago, and became at once 
" the place " for public social functions. What 
memories are conjured up at the simple mention of 
the word " Delmonico's " ! At the Patriarchs' balls 



MADISON SQUARE. 47 

the belles of the season make their debuts. There 
they attend the dancing classes and cotillions. In 
turn, as matrons they act the chaperone for the 
never-ending succession of belles that come and go. 
Finally, as devotees of charity they serve as man- 
agers of the bazaars that are held there for some 
fashionable and worthy benevolence. It has been 
the meeting place of many social and other organ- 
izations, and conspicuously so of the well-known 
Sorosis, the women's club. The youth of the period 
congregate in the cafe on the Broadway side, and 
Del.'s is their favorite lounge. 

We have made the rounds of the Square, and 
have discussed its historical, its social, and its com- 
mercial features. This little book is the result of 
many months' careful research, and is issued by the 
Meriden Britannia Company, which is the last to 
make Madison Square its home. At the door of 
their new salesrooms we bid our reader farewell. 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



001 518 098 5 



Y 



